A Tough Choice
by TheHeadInCharge
Summary: Christy reflects on losing Jodi and is considering helping out Jodi's boyfriend Travis so that he won't suffer the same fate, as he is trying to battle his addiction. Rated T for thematic elements.


**A Tough Choice**

**Disclaimer: "Mom" is owned by Chuck Lorre Productions and Warner Bros. Television.**

**Foreword: Hello, readers. I would like to talk about this story that I came up with. The first thing I would like to say is that I feel like I am late to the party when it comes to "Mom" as I didn't get into this show until earlier this year when I started watching reruns on syndication. I became a fan and I am looking forward to season 7.**

**The second thing I would like to talk about is the story I am about to do. While "Mom" is a hilarious show, there are serious moments and even some moments that will really hit you. This story will go back to season 3 as I was really hit by the whole story involving the character of Jodi. It was so sad when she died, but then came the episode when her boyfriend appeared. Every time I watch those episodes, they hit me really hard, especially the ending with Jodi's boyfriend at the diner with the ladies. Also, because Travis, Jodi's boyfriend, didn't appear again after that episode, I thought about touching on his perspective a bit.**

**The last thing I will say is that I hope you all enjoy this. This first chapter will be told in Christy's perspective.**

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It has been quite a bit since Jodi's death, and I still get hurt just thinking about her. When Mom and I first met her, she looked so lost and I really felt for her, enough that we had convinced her to start attending A.A. with all of us.

Jodi had told us about the rough life she had lived. She had no contact with her family and was living with an abusive boyfriend. It was so depressing to hear about this because it reminded me of how I lived when I was close to her age. Though she wasn't pregnant at 17, she was abused by her boyfriend like I was when I was pregnant with my daughter Violet.

But she did remind me of myself in some ways. I was an alcoholic and addicted to drugs when I was younger. I didn't do any of that stuff when I was pregnant with Violet or my son Roscoe, but I had been through the hardest of times in life. After having my kids, I started drinking again. It was a hard thing for me to let go of.

I was drunk at parent-teacher meetings. I was high on some nights when I stripped. It didn't help that I was drunk and went home with some strangers. Jodi was still young, so there was a way to stop that from ending up how I used to be. Even my own daughter didn't want to end up like me and I never wanted her to. Except she got pregnant, but she gave the baby up for adoption, so maybe the cycle was broken, in a good way.

My mom and I took her in and she stayed with us for months as she cleaned up her act. It wasn't easy, especially that first night we let her stay with us. We were afraid that she would rip us off, but she had nowhere else to go. I became her sponsor at A.A. and I loved her like she was another daughter to me. Not that I loved her more than Violet, even though we have had issues in our relationship, but I was like a mother-figure to her, almost like how Marjorie was to me before my mom joined A.A., much to my disappointment, even though my relationship with my mom has improved a bit.

What made this whole experience of me being a sponsor so fulfilling was that I was helping someone get her life back on track. I was only two years sober and Marjorie was still my sponsor, but helping out Jodie was one thing that made me see that I could make a difference in this world. I saw a girl who was lost and broken, almost like how I was. I wasn't about to let this young girl ruin her life more than she needed to. It was not too late for her, I thought.

We let her stay with us for four months and we helped her look for a job, but most of all, we helped her look for her sister. She moved in with her and got a job as a barista. It seemed like she was getting her life in order. She had attended the meetings with us. However, she was still not far off from kicking her drug habit. I know this because I've been down that road before. It was hard for me to kick the alcohol and drugs, but I did it. I know that if I have one pill that isn't medicine or a drop of alcohol, I will know that I have relapsed.

I did everything I could to help her. At some point, she had met a guy and started dating him. He worked at a tattoo parlor and was also a recovering a drug addict. While I wanted to see Jodi happy and it lit up my day whenever I saw her happy, I had a bad feeling when she told me that he was only six weeks sober. When I was only a sober for a month, I remember meeting a guy at the restaurant I work at and tried to take things slow with him. It didn't work out, but at least I wanted to see if I could just date someone without jumping into bed really soon.

This was different, though, because Jodi's boyfriend was also a recovering addict. Jodi had only been sober for months and cleaned herself up. Her boyfriend was only sober for a little over a month. That wasn't long enough for someone to be ready to start dating. It has been stated in some guidelines that newly sober people shouldn't start dating until they are a year into their sobriety.

I even suggested to her that she should hold off on dating him when he had only been sober for that amount of time. But she really liked him and she continued to date him, even though I had a bad feeling about it.

Sometimes I ask myself how things would have been different if I had taken her call that one day. It was around the time of Marjorie's wedding and I had to deal with Marjorie's future sister-in-law. Then came the bad news on the day of the wedding when she was found dead after she had OD'ed. My worst fears came true. She had relapsed.

For months, I had a hard time dealing with this pain. She was really trying to get clean and I placed a lot of blame on her boyfriend. Everyone was hurt by this loss. My mom, Jill, Marjorie, and Wendy, they all lost a friend. I was more than her sponsor, I was like the mother she needed. If only I had taken that call that day and things would have been different. She would still be here, with us, breathing the same air.

I missed her. In fact, I still miss her, but I tried not to let this bother me for a few months, until one day at A.A., a man named Travis came to the meeting. He mentioned a lot of things about how he had been on and off drugs and had a girlfriend who died from her addiction. It was then I realized who he was.

It was hard for me to be compassionate, because I really believed that he was responsible for Jodi's death. I couldn't hold back the anger one night, but then my friends said that we should let him come to the meetings, because he then told me about how he was still mourning the loss of Jodi. Marjorie even said that Travis didn't kill her, but that her addiction did.

It was true, because I had reflected on my years of being a drunken mess. I even reflected on my days of doing drugs. I had a feeling that if I hadn't gone through sobriety, I don't think I would be here now. Jodi was an addict and her lifestyle was what killed her, not her boyfriend.

Travis said that he couldn't live with himself knowing that his lifestyle would draw Jodi to using again. He even said that he was afraid that he was going to die, but also afraid that he wasn't going to die.

I realized that the anger was not worth it. This young man was in as much pain as I was, if not more.

When he joined us at the diner after a meeting one night, he told us how Jodi told him a lot about us, but most of all, she told him about me. The one thing that really broke my heart was when he said that he wished that Jodi had listened to me when I tried to stop her from dating him. Though I had a lot of anger towards him before, I realized that it didn't help his situation at all. He was as broken as she was when I first met her.

I know that it won't bring Jodi back, but I feel the need to help him. It was time to make sure that he would not go back to doing any drugs. Think about how I would have ended up if I didn't go sober. I can't imagine how my life would have been if I didn't turn my life around.

It's not late for Travis. I offered to be his sponsor and he accepted. He wants to get clean, for himself, for Jodi, and I will do anything to make sure he cleans himself up for good this time.


End file.
